PRESIDENT REBUKES KEY ELECTION AIDE FOR FOLEY ATTACK

By BERNARD WEINRAUB, Special to The New York Times

Published: June 8, 1989

Correction Appended

WASHINGTON, June 7—
President Bush today rebuked one of the primary architects of his 1988 election triumph as the White House sought to blunt outrage in both parties over a Republican National Committee attack on the new House Speaker, Thomas S. Foley.

John H. Sununu, the White House chief of staff, said both he and Mr. Bush had reprimanded Lee Atwater, chairman of the national committee and previously Mr. Bush's campaign manager. Marlin Fitzwater, the White House spokesman, said Mr. Bush was ''disgusted'' at the attack on Mr. Foley.

Speaking with unusual candor, Mr. Sununu said in an interview that he and Mr. Bush were especially disturbed about the committee memorandum that said Mr. Foley should come ''out of the liberal closet'' and that linked his voting record to that of Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a staunch liberal who is also homosexual. 'It Went Too Far'

''The President was very upset,'' Mr. Sununu said. ''I was upset. It went too far. It was wrong. The innuendo was wrong. It's wrong not because it damages our relationship with the Democrats. It's wrong because it's wrong. It's a terrible thing to happen at this time. It was not appropriate or fair.''

The author of the memorandum, Mark Goodin, resigned today as director of communications for the Republican committee. Mr. Goodin, a longtime friend of Mr. Atwater, said the memorandum was ''bad judgment on my part'' and there had been to intent ''to damage anyone's reputation.''

Mr. Goodin's superior, Mr. Atwater, is known for his slashing campaign tactics, and the public reprimand for him exposed rifts within the Republican Party. Not only are White House aides at odds with House Republicans over strategy towards Democrats, but the House Republicans are also divided, with some young conservatives seeking further assaults, personal and otherwise, against Democrats, while senior Republicans shy from such tactics.

Until now, Mr. Atwater had operated with Mr. Bush's open blessing. But today the President bowed to pressure from outraged Democrats and powerful Republicans like Representative Robert H. Michel of Illinois, the House minority leader, and Bob Dole of Kansas, the Senate minority leader, who called the memorandum ''garbage.''

Democratic critics said that if Mr. Bush's dignity suffered in the affair, the President was, essentially, paying the price for appointing Mr. Atwater.

Mr. Atwater, in a brief telephone interview today, insisted he had played no role in the memorandum because of his travels. He said he first saw it Monday night, several days after it had been distributed to 200 Republican leaders.

''I think it was bad taste and bad judgment,'' Mr. Atwater said. ''I told Mark that. I play hardball politics, but I don't cross the line. This memo crossed the line.''

Mr. Atwater was quoted as telling The Wall Street Journal on Monday night that he had no intention of disavowing the memorandum. Moreover, he did not apologize to Mr. Foley until Tuesday night, after Mr. Sununu and leading House Republicans called him. 'A Very Cheap Smear'

The phrase ''coming out of the closet'' commonly refers to homosexuals who make their sexual orientation public. In using it to refer to Mr. Foley's politics and then comparing his voting record to Mr. Frank's, the memorandum has been criticized as suggesting that the Speaker, like Mr. Frank, is a homosexual.

Mr. Foley, appearing on the Cable News Network this morning, spoke of the assertions of his sexual orientation for the first time, repeating in public the denials he has made in private to other House members. He called the memorandum ''a very cheap smear.''

''I am, of course, not a homosexual, been married for 21 years,'' Mr. Foley said. ''Lee Atwater, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, called me up last night and apologized effusively for any such inference, repudiated it and totally rejected it. So I think the issue is closed.''

But other Democrats responded furiously to the attack and said Mr. Bush and the White House could not absolve themselves of the memorandum, because the innuendo was in keeping with the style set by the Bush Presidential campaign. There Mr. Bush used a television spot that implied that Gov. Michael S. Dukakis was ''soft'' on crime because a Massachusetts program had temporarily freed a convicted murderer, Willie Horton, a black man who then proceeded to brutalize a Maryland couple. Democrats attacked the spot as racist. 'Politics of Innuendo'

Ronald H. Brown, the chairman of the Democratic National Commttee, called today for Mr. Atwater's resignation, saying, ''One staffer can't take the fall for an entire Republican political operation that's up to its knees in sewer-style politics.''

In an interview Mr. Brown said: ''The President of the United States has got to get control over his low-life henchmen. You can't conduct yourself one way and then apologize for it the next day. You can't play good-cop, bad-cop forever. It's the Willie Horton thing all over again, where Atwater said he shouldn't have done it. What you have here is a whole pattern and practice of behavior that is abhorrent.''

Representative Jim Leach, a Republican moderate from Iowa and longtime Bush ally, expressed the dismay of moderate Republicans about Mr. Bush's seeming tolerance, up to now, of Mr. Atwater's tactics. ''There is nothing in public life more unprincipled than the politics of innuendo,'' Mr. Leach said. ''A kinder, gentler agenda demands an end to the poisoning of standards that assassinates, rather than holds accountable, character.''

John Buckley, the National Republican Congressional Committee's communications director, expressed concern that the memorandum could backfire.

''There are legitimate and illegitimate lines of attack,'' Mr. Buckley said. ''I think we have been very legitimate in our attacks on Democratic corruption. But unfortunately an illegitimate attack delegitimizes the notion of attacking, and sets us back.''

Mr. Buckley also referred to the resignations on ethics issues of Representative Jim Wright as Speaker, and of Tony Coelho, the House Democratic whip, and said of the Democrats' response to the Foley matter: ''Their having a legitimate gripe in this particular instance is something that allows them to divert attention from the fact that their leadership has crumbled in disgrace.''

Representative Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of Brooklyn and a member of the House Banking Committee, warned that the memorandum could affect upcoming legislation to rescue the savings and loan industry.

''The Bush people want us to get votes on the thrift bill,'' he said. ''This makes the job 10 times harder.''

Correction: June 9, 1989, Friday, Late Edition - Final Because of an editing error, a front-page article yesterday about a Republican attack on House Speaker Thomas S. Foley rendered a passage incorrectly in some copies when quoting Mark Goodin, who resigned as director of communications for the Republican National Committee. Discussing a memo he wrote about Mr. Foley's voting record, Mr. Goodin said there had been no intent ''to damage anyone's reputation.''